


Her First Hogwarts Christmas

by AnOverratedStory



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Mistletoe, jily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 10:02:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2847008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnOverratedStory/pseuds/AnOverratedStory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily spends her seventh year Christmas holidays at Hogwarts after a not-so-favorable Christmas the previous year. She unexpectedly then meets with James Potter and ends the night by hitting him with a singed book. (Rated teen for mild use of bad language)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Her First Hogwarts Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SteamingCupofTea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteamingCupofTea/gifts).



> This is for my boo. I feel really bad that I wasn't able to give her her actual present on time because I'm a piece of crap. Also, she wrote me a hella rad fic for my birthday, so how could I not write her some Jily for Christmas?

Lily sat, curled on a couch in the common room, sitting before the fire with book in hand, repressing a guilty and regretful stone that had set up shop in her stomach. Now that it was Christmas Eve, she felt horrible about not going home. Her parents had said that they understood, but did they really? An insisting voice in the back of the redhead’s thoughts persisted that they did not. They did not understand why their daughter did not want to come home for Christmas when they hadn’t seen her since September.

She shoved back her guilty feelings, quickly reminding herself of the holidays during her previous year before forcefully turning the page in a sappy romance novel she’d picked up before the start of term. The cover had looked promising when she passed it in the Muggle bookstore, but now it proved to be anything but. Due to its horrid writing and incomprehensible plot, she found it even less useful for use as a distraction.

She sighed heavily, sure that she was alone as she made the gesture, and threw the book forward. Of course, with her mood seeming to turn her luck for the worst, she was welcomed with the sight of the book catching fire, as she’d thrown it too close to her formerly adored source of heat.

“Shit!” she exclaimed exasperatedly. Could her day get any worse?

She snuffed out the flames with a rug, then hid the burned side underneath the chair that most had been avoiding all December, for above it was strung a sprig of mistletoe.

“I saw that, Evans,” came a sly, extremely recognizable voice. James Potter.

Yes, this day could get worse.

“Potter, I really don’t need this right now,” she tried to snap, but it came out more tired.

“What? To set the common room aflame? I don’t think anyone needs that, Lily darling.” His lips curled into a smirk. She hated that this didn’t infuriate her, therefore infuriating her, but for the wrong reasons.

“It’s Christmas Eve, James. Could you do me a simple kindness and _sod off_?”

He wore a guise of mock offense. “I was just trying to lighten the mood.” He sat in the chair that she’d hid her evidence under. She was still on the floor, cradling her singed book. “You seem tense.” He grinned, obviously not at all worried that she might very well give him an early Christmas gift in the form of an expertly cast hex.

“No kidding,” she admitted in a sarcastic tone. Uncomfortable with looking up at James, she recovered her seat on the sofa. She waited for her companion to renew his annoying antics as she stared into the fire.

“Kiss and tell?” he suggested. When Lily peeked at his expression, his eyebrows were raised, and he smirked in a way that would’ve made the fifth year girls melt. She would admit to herself, but no one else, that she did feel a twinge of _something_ , when she saw this smile.

“I’ll pass,” she chuckled.

They sat in an almost comfortable silence before James inevitably spoke up again. “How about just kiss?” He received a look from Lily. “Oh, I’m only joking, Evans. I mean how about just tell? I don’t remember ever hearing why you hung back for the holidays. I recall you going home every other year.”

The playfulness in his tone decreased considerably, and Lily thought that this was without intention. “Yes, I do usually go home,” she allowed sadly. She decided to explain her feelings to him, glad that she’d already shed some tears in the dormitory earlier, sure that her eyes would be dry for this explanation. “It’s my sister. Let’s just say that last Christmas didn’t go so well.”

“Oh, that can’t be all you’re going to give me,” he pleaded.

“Of course not,” she ensured with a playful smile. A bitter taste seemed to follow the expression. Not necessarily a legitimate _taste_ , more figurative. It clouded her thoughts. No, she didn’t feel all that much like smiling or flirting with James Potter right now. Not now that she received the full force of her memories of the preceding year’s holiday. “I’m sure that at some point of told you about my sister—”

“—Petunia—”

“—Yes. To recap, she doesn’t exactly approve of my attendance of Hogwarts… of my involvement in witchcraft and wizardry at all, really. Well, last year I bought her a gift, a fairly normal one I might add, but I attempted to dabble in the more risky as well. At the bottom of her box, beneath the scarf I’d gotten her, I placed a picture of us from when we were little. Only, I enchanted it with that potion…” she trailed off, failing to remember the name, but deciding it unimportant. “Anyway, you know, it was moving, she and I were laughing and giggling within the little picture frame, and she went all but completely batshit crazy,” she was quickening the pace of her story as she went on. “She began screaming at me, demanding why on earth I give her such a horrible gift. She threw it on the floor and broke the frame… she told me that I’d tainted her eyes with whatever I’d done… she said she never wanted to talk to me again… that I’d crossed a line. She also took to throwing my wand at the tree and breaking a few ornaments. After that… she just cried and screamed and repeated until she managed to run to her room. I didn’t want to go through that again this year. I wanted Petunia to enjoy the holidays without me. I wanted my parents to have a normal Christmas. I wanted to be able to embrace a Christmas as a witch without worrying about upsetting her…”

When he monologue ceased, James looked utterly captivated, and somewhat indignant. “Honestly, your sister sounds like a mighty prat,” he commented.

Lily rose. “Take that back, Potter.” She would never be able to say in complete truth that she altogether disagreed, but she would never let someone insult Petunia in front of her. She had stepped forward a few paces and was almost hanging over James now, who sat lazily draped over his seat, looking completely at ease and all too pleased with himself.

“Oh, all right, but only on account of you’re about to kiss me.”

All anger faded from Lily’s face and mind. Her head jerked back a little and her thoughts swam puzzledly through her head. “Excuse me?”

With a devilish, yet undeniably handsome, grin spread across his face, he pointed a single finger to the ceiling.

 _Mistletoe_. “Very funny, Potter,” Lily now said, stepping back a little.

“Oh no, you won’t get out of this,” he said cheekily, standing. “Besides, it might cheer you up some.”

Lily thought about this, and although she hadn’t thought of it at the time, she’d now completely forgotten her emotional distress, and decided that she would kiss James Potter underneath the mistletoe on Christmas Eve in seventh year. Little did she know, this would become her new Christmas tradition.

She elevated herself to the best of her ability, standing as high as her toes would allow, and placed a very enjoyable kiss on the lips of James Potter. His were warm and tasted slightly of butterbeer. She smiled into the kiss. How she loved butterbeer…

He pulled away with a smirk on his face. Lily immediately became suspicious. “What…?”

“Suppose I got my kiss and tell anyway?” he noted mischievously.

Lily reached for her burned novel and hit him in the side with it.

“ _Prick_.”

 

 


End file.
